Books celebrating the loser

This is a weird one probably, but I was reading about how survivorship bias can defeat our self esteem. We assume that because a few edge cases managed to eke out success from tragedy, that we should also be able to.

Are there any works of fiction or memoirs about average people who didn't beat incredible odds, and either failed or just…coasted?

It may not make for the most compelling story, but I want something to sort of help me embrace average. No self help books please!